"One should doubtless keep an open mind...though open at both ends, like the food pipe, and have a capacity for excretion as well as intake." -- Northrop Frye, 'The Great Code'
Unless we can get rid of the Trudeau/Butts Liberals we will remain on track to becoming another Venezuela - energy rich but driven into poverty and political chaos by incompetent ideological extremists.
Unless the Conservatives under Andrew Scheer can get their act together, and there's little sign they are doing so, WE ARE SCREWED.
Remember the Leap Manifesto? That was the wild-eyed ultra-greenist,
anti-capitalist dogma-sheet that Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein dragged out ... ... Kill oil. Kill all fossil fuels. No pipelines. No
refineries. Cripple the economy. Deny the poorer nations ... a cascade of unexamined and baseless assertions, a manifest distaste
for reality, a raw pulse of dogmatic certitude, and a set of
prescriptions that would obliterate a modern economy, push hundreds of
thousands out of work, and bring the industrial age back to the days of
horse cart and covered wagons for transportation. ... The authors of Leap were ... merely projecting as it were
private fantasies into the public arena. If, however, they had presented
in Ontario, if they had urged Ontario’s government with the dreams they
urged ... I suspect they would have been mocked as timid,
restrained, unimaginative, even perhaps, regressive. For the Wynne
government’s recently revealed plans for the ‘transformation of the
Ontario energy industry,” is of a reach and scope, depth and range, that
defies all comparison.
Even if there were good evidence that alarmists are right (and there isn't) Canada's contribution to global CO2 emissions is tiny and it's effect on global climate un-measurable. But politicians like Wynne (and Trudeau and ... ) behave as if the world's fate hinges on Canada (or Ontario or ...) taking the lead in sacrificing their citizens' standard of living to Gaia. This is insanely reckless. Canada has no obligation, moral or otherwise, to move any faster on this than the least committed of the largest GHG emitting nations. Doing so is not only climatically pointless, it unnecessarily risks wrecking our economy. We are being led either by nitwits or by cynical tax-grabbers or both.
One of the more forceful lines of Stephen Lewis’s speech in Edmonton in
support of the Leap Manifesto last weekend was his forceful takedown of
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the question of the sale of arms to
Saudi Arabia. After complimenting Trudeau for his florid embrace of
feminism, he gave a quite deft turn of the knife by asking how Trudeau
the feminist could justify selling arms to Saudi Arabia, a “regime
steeped in misogyny.”
An equally just critique may be made of a certain Leap-authoring social
justice activist. So it is fair, I think, to borrow the rhetorical
firecracker Stephen Lewis tossed at Trudeau and lob it toward his son,
Avi Lewis. Here the question is: can someone with an advanced social
conscience work as a “journalist” for the kingdom of Qatar, as Avi did? ...
... what we had in Edmonton last weekend was two white, old-stock,
privileged, celebrity males global-warming-splaining oil-cursed Alberta
to its pioneer NDP, female premier.
To call this a policy inconsistency is to overtax understatement. It is
logically irreconcilable. Should Bombardier find swift favour with the
new Liberal government, there will be far more at stake than the writing
of the cheque.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s sideswipes at Stephen Harper and
Canadian resources at Davos on Wednesday were not merely unworthy, they
were dumb. ...
... The last thing they [our resource industry] need is their prime minister making lame puns overseas at their expense, or implying their livelihoods are infra dig. ...
Economist and Post columnist Stephen Gordon, stirred by the prime
minister’s words, this week let loose a trio of tweets, with commendable
panache, on essentially this very point. With twitterian terseness he
texted: “It takes resourcefulness to extract resources”; “Extracting
crude from the oil sands requires an insanely elevated level of
engineering skills. It’s not like picking $$ from trees”; “Trudeau is
buying into the Jed Clampett trope: resource extraction is something any
dimwitted yob could do.”
One hopes that those dumb enough to vote for (or, in the media, to boost and cover for) now PM Selfie are suffering heavy duty buyer's remorse.
... he is an illustration of a problem and not its cause. Trump is not the
swamp: he is the creature emerging from it. For however ridiculous and
appalling his candidacy may be, it is no worse and no more ridiculous
and appalling than the whole pattern of American politics at this time.
... Is his candidacy more lunatic than the idea of a third President Bush or a second President Clinton?
... Is he more manipulative than President “you can keep you doctor, you can
keep you plan” Obama? Is he less venal or arrogant than Hillary ...? ... Is he less repellent than false and theatrical rape hoaxes that have beleaguered American campuses from Duke to Columbia?
... Is anything Trump has said more staggering or depressing than the idea
that in egalitarian America, a couple of small-time business owners can
get fined $135,000 for not baking a cake? ...
... it is not Trump who should bear the responsibility for his success. It
is the practice of politics itself and the political class (which
includes, more and more, the news media) that has for so long abandoned
honest representation of ideas, facing difficult issues with real
language, which has so professionalized campaigns and elections that the
sound of a human voice saying something it actually means is so rare.
...
Are Canadian politics any less dysfunctional than America's? Would Trump be any worse for America than Trudeau or Mulcair for Canada?
This week Tim Hortons, pressured by foreign-funded climate activists, tore up an advertising contract with energy company Enbridge. Both companies occupy a spot near the top of the list of "2015 Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada". That apparently doesn't cut any ice with Tim's.
This is where climate sanctimony and related idiocies like sustainability and corporate social responsibility lead.
See also, Ezra Levant to sign the petition and chip in for ads.
I’ve seen the captious phrase “white privilege” — a camp neologism by my
reading — very often lately. It emerges from the intellectual marshes
of social justice “educators,” a typical pseudo-concept from that
roiling pastiche of academic pursuit.
... The obsession of seeing everything in race-coloured terms is itself
racist. Anti-racism pursed by zealots transforms itself into the very
vice it deplores. This is the cost of identity politics, and its close
bedmate, victimology enterprises. ...
... It is to the great shame of modern universities that they have debased themselves to the pursuit of these follies ...
The radical academics who push this po-mo nonsense should be run off our campuses, and the faculties from which they push it should be shut down. They are clearly a horrendous waste of taxpayers' money, but, much worse, they are polluting the minds of gullible young students and damaging society at large.
... Literally, you could multiply the instances of silly thinking and
foolish actions by the hundredfold that now burden universities across
the West ... have surrendered to every passing fad and fancy of ever-more trivial and mentally bankrupt causes.
... The universities, under the banner of hollow diversity and the even more
hollow and self-contradictory banner of tolerance, are mutating into
thought-suppressing machines.
... The universities are running a risky race. The more they quiver before
the onslaught of the cause-mongers, refuse to take clear and bold stands
against protest intimidation tactics, the more they lose their
centuries-old prestige. It is a situation that should concern everybody.
.... it is with more grief than anger that I caught the story of an Ottawa
“vigil” this week, held after a Missouri grand jury said it would not
charge police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Ferguson teenager
Michael Brown. Organizers of the rally asked “white/non-black allies” to
“refrain from taking up space” and “never be the centre of anything.”
That last phase “never be at the centre of anything” is particularly
troubling. It is so defiantly categorical and universally — “anything”
— dismissive.
The phrase and the other gibberish attending it should serve as a motto
for every meeting and seminar dedicated to diversity as the governing
motto for how not to engage with social issues, how not to bridge the real differences that can exist between people. ...
Rex's column is a very thoughtful take on a good example of what our universities are churning out these days. Humanities faculties at virtually every university, against all logic, embrace hare-brained, radical, po-mo social theories as if they were established scientific fact. It has become what most "progressives" accept unquestioningly as mainstream thought. The damage done to students' brains, society at large and to tax payers' wallets is enormous.
Much is being made of Barack Obama’s “deal” with China ... ... For those who still retain their enthusiasm for the lame-duck... the announcement was a milestone in the fight against our ecological doom, an historical commitment. ... the deal “shames” Canada, “isolates” us, puts us in the overcrowded villains gallery ... Mr. Obama ... has told China
that the U.S., which even now is on a downward slope in CO2 emissions,
is willing to bind itselfto continuing that downward slope for the next
16 years. ...
... And in return, what does the deal promise from China’s side? ... China has a 16-year holiday to keep accelerating its development, building a coal-powered plant every 8 to 10 days. ... Why cannot Canada take the offer the U.S. made to China? [Because Canadian eco-freaks, egged on by a gullible leftist media, would go nuts].
... So this great historic deal is really nothing more than ... a last gasp for Mr. Obama, a placation to
the always fierce warming constituency, and for the Chinese, a little
chuckle or two at how easy it is to charm the eagerly gullible.
Climate enthusiasts will say that I refuse to
take yes for an answer. Of course I would take yes for an answer. But
the Obama-Xi agreement is not yes. It is “check back with me in 16
years.”Aren’t the people advocating this deal the same garment-rending
climate apocalypticists who’ve been warning of irreversible planetary
changes beginning now, and the supreme imperative of acting immediately?
Except, you see, for China, the world’s No. 1 carbon polluter. It gets a 16-year pass.
Is this how an adult, a possible PM, talks? With its mixture of puerile
condescension, its smug assurance that any vulgar reference to the
Conservatives will “go over” with everyone, it’s an obiter dictum for
the age.
... It wasn’t a slip of the tongue. ... It was the signature of an unserious mind, not to mention a
mindless hit on the pilots of Canada’s military ...
... The closest he has come to justifying this utterly discreditable
position is to suggest that in fact, the best contribution we could make
to the fight was to stay out of it ... As the prime minister put it, “being a free rider means you are not taken seriously.”
Anyone who has followed Trudeau's litany of stupid, juvenile comments has long known that he is absolutely unsuited for the job he is seeking. Most of the media has, up to now, (Sun News excepted) been playing the role of "Justin's number one fan". Is it possible that this could mark a turning point in the media's coverage (and cover-up) of Trudeau? I can dream, can't I?
John Robson (closing with a dismal prediction):
I tend to disagree with Robson's implication that the state of Canada's military readiness is Harper's doing. Our military has been chronically underfunded since the 1960's. We, like the Europeans and other allies have been free-riders largely on American strength, which allowed us to spend mightily on such things as our "world class" universal healthcare. While still low in relation to our GDP, military spending rose substantially under Harper and important capabilities like, for example, the CC-177 Globemaster, have been added.
Mr. Trudeau’s one-purge-fits-all style offers no gradation, no
evaluation of individuals, no acknowledgement that some Senators are
honourable, some have worked well for Canadians, some have not seen the Senate as a lottery pit for their own enrichment.
As a response to the Senate’s problems, Mr. Trudeau’s publicity-winning
move is glib rather than profound, a sloughing off of the problem rather
than a real addressing of it. Ultimately, “go away” is not a policy.
Once again bigotted, fascistic bullies are permitted to shut down speech by someone they disagree with. Once again pathetic, useless, cowardly police allow it to happen.
And once again we are offered proof that universities are wasting mountains of taxpayers' cash "educating" these fools.
Hypocrisy would have to be high up on the list, then his bank account. Rex Murphy:
... in the service of broadening his already impressive propaganda effort, [Al Gore] acquired — from CBC no less — a digital channel, renamed it Current TV, and hired as lead star the belligerent and bellowing Keith Olberman ...
Now comes the latest news that Al has sold Current, for the magnificent sum of $500-million, $100-million of which is his alone, ... to al Jazeera — which is to say, effectively to the ruler of Qatar ... Qatar is about oil, oil and more oil. It is a global warmer’s hell.
In a related story, when Glenn Beckoffered to buy the channel from Gore, he was rebuffed ("within 15 minutes") because:
"the legacy of who the network goes to is important to us and we are sensitive to networks not aligned with our point of view,"
..."[Gore] didn’t sell to the highest bidder. We were not allowed to the table. He didn’t sell to the highest bidder. He looked for, who do I ideologically align with," Beck said.
So, global warming alarmist Al Gore's values are aligned with those of Al-Jazeera and it's petro-state dictator. As Ann Coulter never tires of pointing out "[liberals] are either traitors or idiots..." ["Treason" - p16]. Al is both.
... The Premier of Ontario, a province that owes much of its prosperity to its huge automobile industry shivers when he looks at Alberta, mutters about the dark forces of the “petro-dollar,” and implied ... that somehow Ontario’s fretful financial state is Alberta’s fault.
It’s almost a fantasy disconnect. Dalton Mcguinty can throw billions at General Motors and urge the feds to do the same, all to save the automobile industry. He ignores that four decades or more of Ontario’s prosperity wasn’t founded on windmills: It was based on gas-guzzling cars and trucks. ...
... I can summarize the entire case very simply. The environment is not just what you see on green posters. It is not just sunsets and tall trees. It is also the people living in it. And people need energy, and people need jobs.
... poor Justin is just artlessly parroting assumptions so pervasive among the smart set they’re never examined. Including the feeling that Tories are not merely partisan adversaries or politically mistaken, they are illegitimate.
... Perhaps we need a House Un-Canadian Affairs Committee, to pursue Tories but welcome Bloquists.
... Those clod poles, ne'er-dowells, vandals, punks, thugs and assorted clueless dolts ... a pathetic pack of cowardly destructive losers ... the scum of the earth ...whiny, pampered, useless sacks of skin ...
... all of the vandals and hooligans, within the confines of what is absolutely legal, should be sought out, named, charged, and offered real, substantial penalties ...
I couldn't agree more! But what would constitute "real, substantial penalties"? Real jail time, paying for damages and substantial fines would be good. However, in addition, these destructive nitwits deserve to be publicly humiliated.
So, let's bring back the pillory to the public square. Fitting punishment would be a minimum of ten days days kicked-off with the convicted miscreants receiving a solid public whipping or caning (their choice, it's a free country after all). This should also serve as a serious deterrent to other "useless sacks of skin".
Sadly, however, Ricardo is likely closer to the truth about what will actually happen under our useless touchy-feely "justice" system.
Meanwhile, Captain Vancouver is busy documenting as many of the scum bag rioters as he is able to.
"It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences." -- C. S. Lewis
